﻿﻿POE BY CANDLELIGHT﻿﻿

​﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿​﻿﻿﻿Popular ELTC actors read their favorite stories by the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. This is the final performance of TAES OF THE VICTORIAN’s series for 2019, and refreshments will be served.

Poe by Candlelight is the final "Tales of the Victorians" performance for 2019. Like other "Tales" that take place at different venues throughout the summer, this features light refreshments and stories read by ELTC actors. Refreshments will be served in the hospitality room before the hour-long performance, and the actors are Lee O'Connor and Gayle Stahlhuth. O'Connor, also ELTC's technical director, is a favorite reader for "Tales," and has portrayed Sherlock Holmes since ELTC began producing radio-style Holmes' adventures in 2002. Stahlhuth, who has been ELTC's artistic director since 1999, was recently highly complimented for her directing and portrayal of Martha in ELTC's Arsenic and old Lace in Terry Teachout's review in "The Wall Street Journal." She's also performing in O. Henry's Christmas Tales for the holidays.

﻿Photo left is from ELTC's world premiere The Poe Mysteries with Shelly McPherson, Mark Edward Lang, James Rana, Grace Wright, Fred Velde and Thomas Raniszewski. It was adapted by James Rana from three stories by A. E. Poe.

﻿Edgar Allan Poe (1809 -1849) – the name alone conjures
up mysteries, murder, madmen, and mayhem.
He is considered the creator of the modern detective story, and Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle credits him with influencing his own Sherlock Holmes creation.
His works, in print since 1827, include poetry, stories, a novel, essays, and
book reviews. His idol was Lord Byron, and
by age thirteen, Poe had written enough poetry to publish a book. His teacher and guardian prevented such a
publication. ﻿Born in Boston, Poe was the second of
three children. His parents, both actors, were dead by the time he was
three. The siblings were sent to
different homes, with Poe ending up with John Allan, a wealthy tobacco
merchant, and his wife, Frances, in Richmond, Virginia. In 1826, Poe attended the University of
Virginia, even though Allan didn’t give him enough money to cover expenses. He was
an excellent student, but turned to gambling to pay for his needs. During his first term, he
burned his furniture to keep warm. Poe
returned to Richmond to seek financial help from Allan. Not only did he not
receive it, but he also learned his fiancée Elmira Royster, was engaged
to another man. Eighteen years old, poor and broken-hearted, he was determined
to make his own way in the world. He then published his first volume of
poetry, Tamerlane, and joined the
army.When Poe was twenty-one, he returned to
Richmond upon learning that Frances Allan was dying of tuberculosis. By the
time he arrived, the only mother he had really ever known was already in her
grave. Although the relationship between Poe and Allan was strained, Allan
helped him to get into the United States Military Academy of West Point. Soon
after, Allan remarried, and Poe wasn’t invited to the wedding. Once more feeling betrayed, Poe wrote a
letter outlining all of Allan’s wrong-doings towards him, and threatened to get
himself expelled from West Point. Eight
months later, he was expelled. Fortunately, an
aunt, Maria Clemm, and her young daughter, Virginia, invited him in to their
Baltimore home. One of his short stories won a contest and he became an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger. Within a year Poe was gaining a
reputation as a book critic, which helped to make the Messenger the most
popular magazine in the south. Poe
married Virginia, who was not yet fourteen. Meanwhile, Allan
died, leaving Poe out of his will. He
did, however, provide for an illegitimate child whom Allan had never met. The
Allan’s had never legally adopted Poe.In 1837, believing
he had outgrown the Messenger, Poe,
Virginia and Maria moved to New York City, but it was difficult to find work at
a magazine. Here he wrote his only
novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. The family moved to Philadelphia
a year later where he wrote and edited for several different magazines, and was
building a reputation. Still, it was
difficult for him to make a living. His only “payment” for the publication of Tales
of the Grotesque and Arabesque, was twenty-five free copies of his book. In
1842, Virginia contracted tuberculosis, the disease that had killed his mother,
brother, and Frances Allan. The family moved
back to New York City in 1844, where he became an editor for The
Evening Mirror. When this magazine published “The
Raven” a year later, finally, Poe received the fame he’d been seeking. He could
now demand more pay for his work and his lectures became exceedingly popular.
Two more books were published and finally he was running his own magazine, the Broadway
Journal. By 1846, the magazine proved unsuccessful, Virginia was very ill, and
rumors spread about Poe having a relationship with a married woman. He moved
his family to a small cottage outside the city. Here, in the winter of 1847, at
only twenty-four years of age, Virginia died. Poe was devastated and couldn’t write for months.
For the next two
years, he traveled from one city to another, giving lectures and seeking
backers for another magazine, The Stylus. He met several women along the
way. Nancy Richmond in Massachusetts
inspired some of his greatest poetry, including “For Annie.” He was engaged to the poet Sarah Helen Whitman
in Providence, for a few months. He
courted Elmira Royster Shelton when he learned she was a widow, and the two
became engaged before he left Richmond for Philadelphia. Poe stopped in
Baltimore on his way to Philadelphia, and disappeared for five days. He was discovered
in the bar room of a public house that was being used as a polling station for
a local election. Joseph Snodgrass, a
magazine editor, had Poe taken to a hospital where he died on October 7,
1849. He never regained consciousness
and the cause of his death remains a mystery. Neither Poe’s mother-in-law nor
his fiancée knew what had become of him until they read about it in the
newspapers. ﻿

ELTC's programs are made possible in part through funding from The NJ State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of The National Endowment for the Arts, The NJ Department of State, Division of Travel and Tourism, the generosity of our Season Partners, and the generosity of many patrons.